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Photographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  NY.  14S80 

(716)  872-4503 


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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 

1980 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


D 
D 
D 
D 


D 
D 
D 
D 

D 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleur 


Covers  damaged/ 
Couverture  endommagde 


Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaurde  et/ou  pelliculde 


Cover  title  missing/ 

Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 


□    Coloured  maps/ 
Cartes  gdographiques  en  couleur 


D 


Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 


Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
Reli6  avec  d'autres  documents 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  reliure  serr^e  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  int^rieure 

Blank  leaves  added  durin(i  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajoutdes 
lors  d'une  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  6tait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  6t6  film^es. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  suppl6mentaires: 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  6t6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-dtre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  m6thode  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiqu6s  ci-dessous. 


□    Coloured  pages/ 
Pages  de  couleur 

n    Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommag^es 

I      I    Pages  restored  and/or  lamin&ted/ 


Pages  restaur^es  et/ou  pelliciildes 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxei 
Pages  d6color6es,  tachetdes  ou  piqudes 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  d6tach6es 

Showthrough/ 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

Quality  indgale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  materii 
Comprend  du  materiel  supplementaire 


I      I    Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 

I      I    Pages  detached/ 

[TT^  Showthrough/ 

I      I    Quality  of  print  varies/ 

I      I    Includes  supplementary  material/ 


Only  edition  available/ 
Seuie  dditio  1  disponible 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obacured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  6t6  filmdes  d  nouveau  de  fapon  d 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


rri    This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

|vj    Ce  document  est  filmd  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqu6  ci-dessous. 

10X  14X  18X  22X 


26X 


30X 


7  11 — m 


12X 


16X 


20X 


24X 


28X 


32X 


The  copy  filmed  here  has  been  reproduced  thanks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

Library  of  the  Public 
Archives  of  Canada 


L'exemplaire  film6  fut  reproduit  grSce  h  la 
g6n6ro8it6  dn: 

La  bibliothdque  des  Archives 
publiques  du  Canada 


The  images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
filming  contract  specifications. 


Les  images  suivantes  ont  M6  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettet6  de  l'exemplaire  filmd,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


Les  exemptaires  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprimde  sont  filmds  en  commengant 
par  le  premier  plat  at  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  salon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaiii. 
origin<iux  sont  film6s  en  commenpant  par  la 
premidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 


The  last  recorded  frame  or  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  — ^-  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED "),  or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 


Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparattra  sur  la 
derniAre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbole  —^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN". 


Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  dtre 
film^s  i  des  taux  de  reduction  diffdrents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  cliche,  il  est  filmd  d  partir 
de  Tangle  supdrieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  ndcessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  m^thode. 


1  2  3 


32X 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

R 


THE  ERIE  CANAL: 


ITS 


ORIGIN, 


ITS  SUCCESS,  AND  ITS  NECESSITY 


A  PAPER 


READ  BEFORE  THE  BUFFALO  HISTORICAL  CLUB 


February  3,  1868, 


By  MERWIN  S.  HAWLEY,  Esq.    ..  i^.^AukLu 


Printed  for  Private  Circulation. 


SSSK'^l^-H.S^^'^-   i,ijr»«i 


josEi'H  Warren  &  Co.,  Printers, 

Courier  Office,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 


t  i 


Our  Grand  Erie  Canal  has  been  a  prolific  theme 
for  statesmen  and  politicians,  for  orators  and  essayists, 
during  more  than  half  a  century.  The  visions  of  wealth 
and  greatness  that  would  result  from  its  construction,  to 
our  common  country,  and  especially  to  our  own  State, 
which  filled  the  mind  of  him  who  first  published  to  the 
world  the  project  of  such  a  canal,  have  been  eagerly 
adopted  by  those  who  became  its  advocates.  The  poli- 
tician at  the  caucus,  the  legislator  in  the  Capitol,  and 
those  occupying  seats  of  authority,  have  been  alike  emu- 
lous of  being  regarded  as  its  special  champions. 

Considerations  of  political  economy,  and  of  political 
and  commercial  supremacy,  in  all  their  various  phases, 
have  been  urged  and  repeated  in  favor  of  its  original 
construction,  and  of  its  subsequent  enlargement;  and 
of  yet  further  enlarging  and  perfecting  its  capacity,  as 
the  increase  of  its  business  and  the  wealth  of  the  coun- 
try— foretold  by  its  projector — have  demonstrated  to  be 
necessary. 

It  was  not  so  from  the  beginning. 

The  first  promulgation  of  the  project  met  with  such 
derision  that  its  author  was  deemed  a  visionary  enthu- 
siast, and  the  publication  of  the  project  was  nearly 
strangled  at  its  birth.  The  first  successful  movement  in 
regard  to  it  in  the  Legislature  was  treated  in  much  the 
same  manner;  a  few  hundred  dollars  being  appropriated 


to  defray  the  expenses  of  exploring,  by  the  affirmative 
votes  of  some  who  declared  that  they  voted  for  the 
small  amount,  because  it  could  not  do  any  harm  and 
might  be  productive  of  some  good.  And  when,  after 
long  delay  and  protracted  opposition,  and  much  of  that 
opposition  from  the  city  which  has  derived  a  large  share 
of  its  benefits,  the  Act  of  April  15th,  i8x7awas  passed 
by  the  Legislature,  committing  the  State  to  the  canal 
policy,  the  whole  scheme  narrowly  escaped  destruction 
in  the  Council  of  Revision. 

Nor  did  opposition  to  the  project  disappear  immedi- 
ately after  the  State  entered  upon  the  momentous  work ; 
but  the  progress  made  by  the  judicious  efforts  of  those 
charged  with  its  management,  and  the  far-seeing  policy 
and  self-denying  labors  of  the  chief  executive  officer  of 
the  State,  gradually  brought  the  scheme  into  general 
favor,  and  the  story  of  the  beginning,  progress  and 
completion  of  the  canal,  will  perpetuate  honors  to  the 
memory  of  Clinton,  so  long  as  the  waters  of  Erie  shall 
flow  into  that  channel  of  commerce. 

The  celebration  of  the  completion  of  the  middle  sec- 
tion, on  the  4tli  of  July,  1820,  three  years  from  the  day 
of  its  commencement,  was  the  culminating  point  where 
opposition  ceased  or  was  disarmed;  and  the  resources 
of  a  united  people  were  thenceforth  devoted  to  the 
accomplishment  of  an  enterprise  which  was  expected 
greatly  to  increase  the  wealth  and  the  happiness  of  all 
the  people,  and  secure  to  the  State,  in  all  coming  time, 
a  high  and  controling  position  in  the  trade  and  com- 
merce of  the  North  American  continent. 

But  previous  to  this  a  disposition  had  been  mani- 
fested to   learn   about  the   "Origin  of  the  Canal,"  and 


who  was  its  first  projector,  who  had  first  proclaimed  to 
the  world  the  feasibility  of  such  a  project,  had  pointed 
out  the  route,  had  estimated  the  expense,  had  foretold 
the  great  and  varied  benefits  that  would  result  from  it, 
and  had  urged  the  importance  of  it  upon  the  attention 
of  the  public. 

Colonel  Robert  Troup,  in  the  Geneva  Gazette  of 
December  15,  1819,  writes: 

"The  successful  progress  of  the  Erie  Canal  and  the  immense  ben- 
efits likely  to  arise  from  its  completion,  have  lately  excited  a  lauda- 
ble curiosity  to  know  who  was  the  projector  of  the  canal  policy  in 
this  State.  A  just  regard  to  the  reputation  of  the  State,  seems  to 
require  that  the  projector  should  be  favored  with  some  decisive  proof 
of  public  gratitude." 

Colonel  Troup,  when  writing  in  December,  1819,  main- 
tained with  much  confidence  that  Elkanah  Watson  was 
the  projector;  but  as  Mr.  Watson,  in  1820,  disclaimed 
being  the  projector  of  the  Erie  Canal,  claiming  only 
that  he  projected  the  lake  canal  policy  which  produced 
the  Act  of  March,  1 792,  chartering  the  "  Western  Inland 
Lock  Navigation  Company,"  Col.  Troup,  in  his  letter 
of  February  8.  1822,  addressed  to  the  Hon.  Brockholst 
Livingston,  to  quote  his  own  language:  "Abstains  from 
bestowing  on  Mr.  Watson  any  credit  for  that  sublime 
effort  of  human  intellect  which  projected  the  canal  route 
to  lake  Erie,"  and  he  adds,  "As  this  sublime  effort  is 
pregnant  with  incalculable  benefits  to  the  State,  I  bow 
with  sentiments  of  profound  respect  and  gratitude,  to 
the  man  whose  genius  had  the  capacity  to  conceive  and 
usher  into  public  notice,  the  design  of  a  work  so  stu- 
pendous." 

Various  <  ^  lims  were  put  forth  to  the  honor  of  being 
the  first  to  "suggest"  such  a  project,  or  being  the  first 


6    ' 


who  had  "talked  of  it" — and  for  the  honor  of  being  its 
first  "projector" — and  it  is  not  surprising,  perhaps,  that 
some  claims  of  this  character  were  made,  which  are  not 
well  supported  by  the  acts  and  promulgations  of  the 
person  in  whose  behalf  the  claim  is  made. 

Many  distinguished  names  are  entitled  to  lasting  hon- 
ors for  the  services  they  rendered  during  the  incipient 
movements  and  the  whole  progress  of  construction,  and 
to  none  more,  than  to  those  who  so  successfully  per- 
formed the  essential  part  of  engineers. 

In  seeking  for  the  facts  on  which  the  claim  of  being 
the  "first  projector"  is  to  be  sustained,  (if  sustained  at 
all,)  we  necessarily  look  for  what  was  said,  or  written,  or 
done  by  the  person ;  and  his  writings,  or  other  promul- 
gations, made  known  or  recorded  at  the  time  of  their 
occurrence,  must  be  conclusive.  And  if  any  doubt 
exist  in  regard  to  his  meaning,  or  as  to  what.was  in  the 
mind  of  the  person  when  n.aking  any  particular  expres- 
sion, his  subsequent  writings  on  the  same  subject  afford 
the  best  explanations  of  which  they  are  susceptible. 
Especially  will  such  evidences  have  a  controling  influ- 
ence in  our  minds  when  seeking  for  the  truth,  over 
statements  made  from  memory  only,  after  the  decease  of 
the  person,  and  twenty  or  fifty  years  after  the  incident 
is  stated^  have  occurred. 

The  Paper  which  I  had  the  honor  to  read  before  this 
Society  on  the  21st  February,  1866,  briefly  notes  or 
indicates  the  principal  facts  necessary  to  a  solution  of 
the  question:  Who  was  the  first  projector  of  the  canal? 
Showing  that  in  the  year  1724  Cadwallader  Golden  sug- 
gested that  there  might  be  found  a  continuous  inland 
water  communication  between  the  Oswego  river  and 
Lake  Erie;  that  in  1797  Gen.  Philip  Schuyler  and  an 


English  engineer,  William  Weston  had  "talked  of"  a 
water  communication  through  the  State  to  Lake  Erie, 
keeping  the  interior,  if  it  were  practicable,  which  tliey 
doubted;  showing  also  the  facts  and  circumstances 
relied  upon  to  sustain  the  claim  made  by  friends  of 
Gouverneur  Morris,  since  his  decease,  that  he  was  the 
"first  projector;"  also  showing  briefly  the  writings  of 
Jesse  Hawley  on  the  subject;  and  the  action  of  the 
Legislature  on  the  motion  of  Joshua  Forman. 

The  Papers  written  by  Jesse  Hawley,  and  signed 
'*  Hercules,"  the  first  of  which  was  published  in  Pitts- 
burg, Penn.,  in  the  newspaper  called  the  Commonwealth^ 
on  the  14th  January,  1807,  and  subsequently  in  the  Gen- 
esee Messenger^  at  Canandaigua,  in  this  State,  beginning 
in  October,  1807,  and  extending  to  fourteen  numbers — 
some  of  which  newspapers  are  now  in  the  archives  of 
this  Society  through  the  courtesy  of  the  Hon.  T.  T. 
Flagler,  of  Lockport,  are  the  first  publications  of  the  pro- 
ject for  this  canal. 

Those  Papers,  after  pointing  out  the  feasibility  of  a 
canal  on  nearly  the  identical  line  now  occupied  by  it, 
recommending  its  size  to  be  one  hunti  ed  feet  wide  and 
ten  feet  deep,  estimating  its  cost  with  great  accuracy,  and 
in  many  ways  urging  public  attention  to  its  importance 
and  the  propriety  of  an  actual  survey,  proceed  to  point 
out  other  important  improvements  in  other  States,  some 
of  which  have  since  been  constructed ;  among  which 
are  the  Ohio  Canal,  the  Wabash  Canal,  the  St.  Marie 
Canal,  to  open  navigation  into  Lake  Superior,  the  Fox 
and  Wisconsin  rivers  connection,  the  Illinois  and  Mich- 
igan Canal,  the  Canal  around  the  falls  of  the  Ohio 
river,  etc. 


8 

Mr.  Hawley  originally  "intended  to  deposit  those 
papers  in  the  archives  of  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of 
State,  in  order  to  preserve  the  evidences  of  his  claim  to 
the  first  writings  on  the  subject,"  but  they  are,  by  his  will, 
deposited  with  the  Historical  Society  of  the  city  of  New 
York.  He  writes,  "  I  claim  the  original  and  the  first 
publication  of  the  overland  route  of  the  Erie  Canal." 

Again  Mr.  Hawley  writes  in  the  Daily  Democrat 
newspaper  of  Rochester,  October  6,  1835,  as  follows: 

"To  THE  Public. — The  purport  of  the  following  letters  will  suffi- 
ciently explain  their  ol)ject.  While  their  originals  are  intended  to  be 
preserved,  they  are  published  at  the  present  time  to  establish  their 
authenticity  hereafter,  and  also  to. give  the  present  age  an  oppor«^u- 
nity  to  rectify  any  supposed  errors  therein.  In  order  to  aid  their 
circulation  in  this  paper,  extra  copies  will  be  sent  to  many  public 
men  and  personal  friends." 

The  letters  which  followed  contained  various  evi- 
dences of  the  correctness  of  his  claim,  and  closed  in 
the  Daily  Democrat  of  October  10,  1835,  with  the  fol- 
lowing: 

"To  THE  Public. — I  now  reassert  my  claim  to  the  original  concep- 
tion of  the  project  of  the  overland  route  of  the  Erie  Canal,  *  *  * 
and  also  state  that  the  imputations  to  the  contrary,  communicated  to 
Dr.  Hosackby  some  of  his  correspondents,  were  altogether  inaccurate, 
and  must  have  originated  in  forgetfulness  or  misapprehension.  I  do 
not  wish  to  be  understood  as  saying  that  I  was  the  first  or  the  only 
person  who  conceived  the  idea.  I  merely  mean  to  say  that  with  me 
it  was  a  native  thought,  without  having  been  suggested  or  communi- 
cated to  me  by  any  person,  and  that  I  was  the  first  person  who  wrote 
and  published  the  project." 

Colonel  Troup,  in  his  letter  to  Brockholst  Livingston, 
of  February  8,  1822,  already  referred  to,  says,  "In 
October,  1807,  Jesse  Hawley  commenced  the  publica- 
tion in  the  Ontario  Messenger,  of  a  series  of  essays  in 


9 


it  those 
etary  of 
claim  to 
•  his  will, 
r  of  New 
the  first 
anal." 
Democrat 
lUows: 

i  will  suffi- 
uled  to  be 
blish  their 
n  oppor«:u- 
)  aid  their 
any  public 

ous   evi- 

:losed  in 

the  fol- 


lal  concep- 

*     *     « 

inicated  to 
naccurate, 
ion.  I  do 
r  the  only 
t  with  me 
communi- 
who  wrote 


inffston, 


s, 


In 


publica- 
ssays  in 


favor  0^  opening  a  canal  to  Lake  Eric,  which  was  the 
first  public  annunciation  of  the  present  system." 

Governor  DeWitt  Clinton  writes,  "  The  first  hint  on 
this  subject  which  I  have  seen  in  print  was  suggested 
by  Jesse  Hawley.  *  *  *  On  the  27th  of  October, 
1807,  he  commenced  a  series  of  essays  on  internal  navi- 
gation, over  the  signature  of  '  Hercules,'  in  the  Ontario 
Messenger,  which  extended  to  fourteen  numbers."  And 
Governor  Clinton  said  to  Judge  Benjamin  Wright,  "the 
essays  of  '  Hercules,'  in  the  Ontario  Messenger,  were  the 
first  suggestions  in  a  tangible  shape  which  he  could  find 
of  the  origin  of  the  canal." 

Elkanaii  Watson,  writing  in  1 819,  says,  "  I  have  not 
been  able  to  trace  any  measure,  public  or  private,  tend- 
ing towards  this  great  enterprise,  (the  Erie  Canal,)  till 
the  27th  of  October,  1807,  when  an  anonymous  publi- 
cation under  the  signature  of  *  Hercules'  appeared  in  the 
Genesee  Messenger,  which  is  attributed  to  Jesse  Hawley, 
Esq.  These  valuable  essays  continued  through  a  course 
of  fourteen  weekly  numbers,  to  March  2,  1808.  They 
are  evidently  original,  and  they  display  deep  research 
and  views  vastly  extended  —  indeed,  they  may  be  pro- 
nounced prophetic,  in  striking  out  nearly  the  track  of 
the  route  of  the  canal  v/hich  has  since  been  adopted." 

Since  the  reading  of  the  Paper  before  this  Society  on 
the  2ist  February,  1866,  hereinbefore  alluded  to,  excep- 
tions to  the  claims  of  Jesse  Hawley  have  been  made 
by  George  Geddes,  Esq.,  who,  in  a  Paper  read  before 
this  Society,  on  the  4th  of  February,  1867,  claims  that 
Gouverneur  Morris  was  the  projector  of  the  canal ;  and 
so  confident  is  Mr.  Geddes  in  the  correctness  of  his 
theory,  that  he  seems  to  think  it  presumptuous  for  any 
one  to  "claim  the  honor  of  first  proposing  the  interior 


10 


route,  without  having  received  the  suggestion  «is  coming 
irom  Mr.  Morris;"  and  that  objecting  to  the  claim  made 
in  behalf  of  Mr.  Morris  is  "caviling."  He  also  says 
that  "recently  very  groundless  claims  to  this  honor  have 
been  revived." 

The  theory  of  Mr.  Geddes  is  founded  upon  a  letter 
from  Governor  Morgan  Lewis  to  Hermanus  Bleecker, 
dated  May  26th,  1828;  the  letter  from  Mr.  Morris  to 
John  Parish,  dated  December  20th,  1800;  the  letter 
from  Simeon  DeWitt  to  William  Darby,  dated  February 
25th,  1822;  the  letter  of  James  Geddes  to  V7illiam 
Darby,  dated  February  22d,  1822;  and  the  fact  as  stated, 
that '.'  Mr.  Morris  was  a  projector,  he  had  seen  canals  in 
Europe,"  etc. 

The  propositions  of  Mr.  Geddes  are  ingeniously  sup- 
ported, 'and  with  as  much  consistency,  apparently,  as 
could  be  exercised,  while  omitting  all  reference  to  Mr. 
Morris's  writings,  except  the  one  letter  already  alluded 
to;  and  he  builds  up  the  following  quadrangular  column, 
that  Mr.  Morris  told  Mr.  DeWitt  of  the  project  in  1803; 
that  DeWitt  told  it  to  James  Geddes  in  1804;  that  Mr. 
Geddes  told  it  to  Jesse  Hawley  in  1806,  or  as  Mr. 
Geddes  afterwards  states,  in  1 805  ;  and  says  that  James 
Geddes  was  so  impressed  with  the  statement  he  had 
heard  from  Mr.  DeWitt,  that  he  formed  public  opinion, 
until  in  1807,  Joshua  Forman  was  elected  to  the  Assem- 
bly as  a  "canal  man;"  and  to  support  the  claim,  that  Mr. 
Forman's  election  as  a  "  canal  man "  was  based  on  the 
idea  of  a  direct  overland  canal  to  Lake  Erie,  Mr.  Geddes 
quotes  from  the  recollections  of  Judge  Strong,  now  85 
years  old,  of  what  occurred  in  1804;  from  a  letter  writ- 
ten by  Thomas  Wheeler  in  1846,  giving  some  of  his 
recollections  of  occurrences  in  1807;  ^"»^  some  state- 


11 


ments  by  Mr.  Gillchres,  giving  his  recollections  of  1806. 
All  these  vague  statements  are  from  recollections  of 
scenes  many  years  previous,  and  but  faint  allusion  to  an 
overland  canal  is  maae  in  any  of  them. 

The  promulgations  of  Mr.  Morris  do  not  sustain  the 
claim  that  he  was  the  projector  of  the  Erie  Canal.  A 
correct  interpretation  of  what  he  said  and  wrote  fails 
to  show  that  he  had  any  conception  of  such  a  project 
until  the  year  18 10,  when,  as  one  of  the  seven  commis- 
sioners appointed  that  year  to  make  explorations,  in  a 
consultation  of  all  the  commissioners,  at  Rome,  July  12, 
1 8 10,  Mr.  Morris  expressed  himself  in  favor  of  an  over- 
land canal.  Mr.  Geddes  says,  after  relating  this  inci- 
dent, "  Though  Mr.  Morris  had  been  considering  the 
subject  of  a  water  communication  from  the  great  lakes 
to  the  Hudson  ever  since  1777,  (thirty-three  years,)  and 
had  visited  the  canals  of  Europe,  he  had  not  arrived  at  any 
true  conception  of  what  the  face  of  the  country  would 
permit  of  being  done."  And  Mr.  Morris  writes  to 
Mr.  Henry  Latrobe,  April  25th,  18 10,  advising  of  the 
appointment  of  those  seven  commissioners,  and  adds, 
"  I  hope  the  business  may  be  effected  in  a  proper  manner, 
*■  *  *  *  but  I  fear  our  minds  are  not  yet  enlarged 
to  the  size  of  so  great  an  object." 

The  commissioners  had  with  them  in  that  tour  of  ex- 
ploration the  essays  of  Mr.  Hawley,  signed  "  Hercules," 
a  long  letter  from  Joseph  ElHcott,  giving  information  of 
the  country  between  the  Niagara  and  Genesee  rivers, 
with  an  explanatory  map,  and  the  report  by  James 
(jcddes  of  his  surveys  in  1808,  made  in  pursuance  of 
the  motion  of  Judge  Forman;  and  it  is  probable  that  the 
thirty-three  years  consideration  of  the  subject  by  Mr. 
Morris   enabled    him    to    perceive   the  value   of  those 


12 

documents,  and  thus  prompted  him  to  put  himself  on 
record  in  favor  of  an  overland  canal  to  Lake  Erie. 

An  expression  of  Governor  Seward,  in  the  introduc- 
tion to  his  Natural  History  of  New  York,  is  quoted  by 
Mr.  Gcddes  and  others,  in  support  of  the  claim  in  behalf 
of  Mr.  Morris;  but  as  Governor  Seward  takes  a  quota- 
tion from  Mr.  Morris's  letter  to  John  Parish,  in  Decem- 
ber, 1800,  as  the  ground  of  his  opinion,  he  adds  no 
strength  to  the  claim  beyond  that  afforded  by  the  letter. 

Cadwallader  D.  Golden,  in  his  memoirs  of  the  canal, 
gives  a  brief  and  impartial  statement  of  the  views  de- 
duced from  Mr.  Morris's  letter  to  John  Parish,  and  from 
Mr.  DeWitt's  letter  to  William  Darby,  and  comes  to  the 
conclusion  that  Mr.  Morris  contemplated  only  the  route 
by  Lake  Ontario,  with  a  ship  canal  around  Niagara  Falls, 
as  provided  by  the  Act  of  1798,  incorporating  the 
Niagara  Company. 

Under  an  "errata"  on  a  fly-leaf  at  the  end  of  the  vol- 
ume, Mr.  Golden  says,  "  It  is  due  to  Mr.  Morris  to 
mention  that  since  the  Memoir  was  written,  the  author 
has  ascertained  that  when,  in  the  year  1800,  Mr.  Morris 
suggested  the  practicability  of  enabling  ships  to  sail 
from  London  into  Lake  Erie;  and  when,  in  1803,  he 
spoke  of  'tapping  Lake  Erie,'  he  undoubtedly  contem- 
plated a  water  communication  directly  from  that  lake  to 
the  Hudson." 

Mr.  Golden  probably  received  this  information  from 
some  person  interested  and  the  kindness  of  his  heart, 
prompting  him  to  honor  the  memory  of  his  departed 
friend,  he  affixed  the  above  paragraph  to  a  fly-leaf,  appa- 
rently after  a  portion  of  the  edition  had  been  printed. 
He  tould  not  have  derived  the  information  from  Mr. 
writings,  as  we  shall  presently  see. 


'O''' 


13 


Dr.  Hosack,  who  investiga*^ed  this  subject  more  thor- 
oughly than  any  other  writer,  gives  ft  as  his  opinion  that 
it  is  "questionable  how  far  Mr.  Morris,  (notwithstanding 
his  conversation  with  Simeon  DeWitt  in  1803,)  l^^d, 
prior  to  18 10,  when  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  Canal 
Commissioners,  seriously  contemplated  any  other  com- 
munication between  the  Hudson  and  Lake  Erie,  than 
the  route  by  Oswego  and  Lake  Ontario." 

Dr.  Hosack  expresses  some  disappointment  that  the 
family  of  his  old  friend  Mr.  Morris  did  not  furnish  him, 
on  his  application,  the  "documents"  to  sustain  the  views 
that  had  been  imputed  to  him. 

Mr.  Morris  was  a  man  of  rare  qualities.  He  held 
several  important  and  honorable  public  positions,  and 
his  liberal  education  derived  improvement  from  his  ex- 
tensive travels.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  "projector." 
He  had  the  superintendence  of  a  large  tobacco  business 
in  Vi  -ginia,  in  connection  with  Robert  Morris  (who  was 
not  a  family  relative);  and  some  dealings  with  French 
traders,  which  he  had  "projected,"  gave  him  occasion  to 
go  to  France  jn  December,  1788,  to  institute  legal  pro- 
ceedings there  to  enforce  payments. 

While  in  France,  Mr,  Morris  projected  a  sale  of 
twenty  thousand  barrels  of  flour,  to  the  French  gov- 
ernment, which  resulted  in  loss.  He  also  projected,  in 
connection  with  some  capitalists  in  Holland,  extensive 
speculations  in  the  United  States  securities,  which  the 
French  Minister  of  Finance  was  desirous  to  realize  upon 
as  the  troublesome  times  of  the  French  Revolution  besan 
to  be  felt.  A  very  important  part  of  his  business,  also, 
w^as  to  find  purchasers  for  some  wild  lands  belonging  to 
himself,  Robert  Morris  and  others,  lying  mostly  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  in  the  county  of  St.  Lawrence. 


J 


/ 


u 

•  Mr.  Morris  and  M.  Leray  de  Chaumont  having  real- 
ized by  loans  from  M,  Necker,  thirty-eight  thousand  dol- 
lars on  their  bonds  Secured  by  lands  in  this  country, 
which  investment  M.  Necker  seems  to  have  made  for  the 
benefit  of  his  daughter  Madame  de  Stael,  she  prevailed 
upon  her  father  to  appropriate  twen . y  thousand  dollars 
for  the  purchase  of  lands  in  America  for  herself  direct; 
in  pursuance  of  which  a  purchase  of  twenty-three  thou- 
sand acres  was  made  in  St.  Lawrence  county,  New  York, 
under  the  direction  of  M.  Necker,  by  M.  Leray,  with 
the  advice  of  Mr.  Morris,  who  was  consulted  as  being  a 
friend  to  the  parties,  and,  owning  lands  in  the  same 
vicinity,  was  well  acquainted  with  their  value. 

Mr.  Morris  returned  from  Europe  in  December,  1 798. 
In  the  summer  of  i  800  he  made  the  journey  which  he 
so  glowingly  described  in  his  letter  to  John  Parish,  dated 
at  the  city  of  Washington,  December  20,  1800,  which 
has  already  been  alluded  to.  In  that  letter  he  says, 
"In  July  last  I  left  home  to  visit  some  property  of  my 
own,  and  some  which  was  confided  to  my  care  by  others, 
in  the  northern  part  of  the  State  of  New  York,  I  went 
by  way  of  Albany  and  the  lakes  George  and  Champlain, 
to  Montreal."  From  Montreal  "  we  took  boat  and  went 
up  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Lake  Ontario,  and  along  the 
south  side  of  that  lake  to  Niagara;  thence  by  land  to 
Lake  Erie,  and  so  back  again."  "After  one  days'  re- 
pose at  Niagara,  we  went  to  view  the  Falls;  *  *  * 
from  the  Falls  towards  Lake  Erie,  along  the  bank  of 
Niagara  river,  *  *  *  ^ve  proceed  to  Fort  Erie."  "  Here 
*  *  *  I  saw  riding  at  anchor  nine  vessels,  the  least  of 
them  one  hundred  tons.  *  *  *  Does  it  not  seem  like 
magic  ?  *  *  *  Hundreds  of  large  ships  will  in  no 
distant  period  bound  on  the  billows  of  those  inland  seas. 


15 


At.  this  point  commences  a  navigation  of  more  than  a 
thousand  miles.  Shall  I  lead  your  astonishment  to  the 
verge  of  incredulity?  I  will.  Know,  then,  that  one- 
tenth  of  the  expense  borne  by  Britain  in  the  last  cam- 
paign, would  enable  ships  to  sail  from  London,  through 
Hudson's  river,  into  Lake  Erie."  Writing  of  taxes  and 
finance,  in  the  same  letter,  Mr.  Morris  says,  "In  1760 
there  was  not,  perhaps,  ten  thousand  dollars  of  specie  in 
this  country.  At  present,  the  banks  in  Philadelphia 
alone  have  above  ten  millions  to  dispose  of,  beyond  the 
demand." 

We  will  hope  that  those  banks  are  relatively  as  rich 
in  specie  funds  at  the  present  time. 

The  expressions  here  quoted,  particularly  that  relating 
to  ships  sailing  through  Hudson  river  into  Lake  Erie, 
have  been  treated  as  the  sin'e  foundation  of  a  claim  to 
his  being  the  projector  of  the  Erie  Canal ;  although  he 
was  well  aware  of  the  existence  and  operations  of  the 
Western  Inland  Lock  Navigation  Company,  for  improv- 
ing the  navigation  between  Schenectady  and  Oswego 
by  the  Mohawk  river  and  Oneida  lake  and  river,  and  he 
was,  of  course,  well  advised  of  the  legislative  action  two 
years  previously,  incorporating  the  "  Niagara  Company," 
for  the  purpose  of  constructing  a  ship  canal  around 
Niagara  Falls. 

The  truth  Is,  as  we  will  soon  see,  that  Mr.  Morris 
could  not  have  had  in  his  mind,  when  writing  those 
expressions,  any  other  route  to  Lake  Erie  than  the  one 
by  Lake  Ontario  and  Niagara  river;  for  his  own  subse- 
quent writings  on  the  subject,  which  are  clear  and  un- 
ambiguous, are  the  best  explanations  of  any  ambiguity 
in  the  expressions  just  quoted. 


1(» 


But  first,  let  us  look  at  one  or  two  other  incidents  that 
are  claimed  as  furnishing  supporting  evidence  to  the 
theory  that  Mr.  Morris  meant  the  Erie  Canal. 

The  first  is  of  an  earlier  date,  which  is  a  letter  written 
by  Governor  Morgan  Lewis  to  Hermanus  Bleecker, 
dated  May  26,  1828,  written  in  reply  to  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Bleecker  asking  him  to  write  out  his  recollections 
of  some  remarks  made  by  Mr.  Morris,  when  at  General 
Schuyler's  headquarter^  at  Fort  Edward  in  1777. 

Governor  Lewis  writes  that  Mr.  Morris  was  sanguine 
of  our  success  in  the  war,  "  and  spoke  in  animated  terms 
of  the  rapid  march  of  the  useful  arts  through  our  coun- 
try when  once  freed  from  a  foreign  yoke.  One  evening 
he  announced  in  language  highly  poetic,  that  at  no  very 
distant  day  the  waters  of  the  great  western  inland  seas 
would,  by  the  aid  of  man,  break  through  their  barriers 
and  mingle  with  those  of  the  Hudson." 

Governor  Lewis  was  seventy-four  years  old  when  he 
wrote  that  letter,  giving  his  recollections  of  the  language 
used  by  Mr.  Morris  fifty-one  years  previously ;  and  when 
we  call  to  mind  the  ardor  of  feelings  that  would  naturally 
arise  in  the  mind  of  a  youthful  officer  in  the  army  on 
receiving  a  visit  from  his  friend  and  classmate,  and  that  at 
the  time  of  writing,  the  canal,  unthought  of  in  those  ear- 
lier days,  was  in  the  full-tide  of  success  and  popularity, 
and  that  Governor  Lewis  writes  entirely  from  recollec- 
tions, and  does  not  pretend  to  quote  a  word  as  being  Mr. 
Morris's  language,  we  will  necessarily  make  some  allow- 
ance for  his  interest  in  behalf  of  his  early  friend,  and  give 
such  weight  to  the  statements,  as,  in  connection  with 
other  evidences,  they  shall  seem  entitled  to. 

Another  incident,  stated  from  memory  and  second- 
handed,  some  thirty  years  after  it  is  said  to  have  occurred 


17 


has  been  related  to  support  the  claim  in  behalf  of  Mr. 
Morris.  It  is  said  to  have  been  communicated  by 
S.  DeWitt  Bloodijood  as  obtained  from  Mr.  K.  K.  Van 
Rensselaer.  It  is,  that  at  a  dinner  party  in  Washington, 
soon  after  the  date  of  Morris's  letter  to  John  Parish,  the 
locality  of  the  seat  of  government  was  discussed,  and 
Newburg,  on  the  Hudson  river,  was  suggested  as  a 
proper  place. 

Mr.  Morris  said,  "  Yes,  this  would  have  been  the 
place,  and  the  members  of  Congress  could  have  come 
from  all  parts  by  water."  "Come  by  water!"  exclaimed 
the  company,  "  but  how .?"  "  By  tapping  Lake  Erie  and 
bringing  its  waters  to  the  Hudson."  "  How  could  you 
bring  them?"  "By  an  inclined  plane."  "But  that 
would  be  too  expensive."  "  Well,  then,"  said  he,  "  ther6 
is  a  water-table  which  can  be  found." 

This  story  is  probably  from  the  lively  imagination  of 
some  ardent  friend  of  Mr.  Morris, — and  its  invalidity,  so 
far  as  furnishing  evidence  of  Mr.  Morris  being  the  pro- 
jector of  the  Erie  Canal, — and  the  invalidity  of  the  views 
drawn  from  the  letter  of  Morgan  Lewis,  as  well  as  the 
great  mistake  made,  and  often  repeated,  in  claiming  that 
in  his  letter  to  John  Parish,  from  which  extracts  have 
been  made,  Mr.  Morris  foretold  the  Eric  Canal,  are  all 
conclusively  shown  by  Mr.  Morris  himself,  in  his  letter 
to  General  Henry  Lee,  dated  January  22d,  1801.  Gen- 
eral Lee  had  written  to  Mr.  Morris,  on  the  sixteenth  of 
January,  asking  him  to  write  out  fully  his  views  in  re- 
gard to  improvements  of  the  country  by  additional  water 
communications,  and  Mr.  Morris,  after  gracefully  ac- 
knowledging the  receipt  of  the  letter,  says,  "I  will 
sketch  out  to  you  a  general  idea  of  what  has  occurred 

8 


18 

to  my  observation  and  reflection  respecting  the  com- 
merce of  our  interior  country,  the  political  consequences 
which  may  result  from  it,  and  the  means  we  possess  of 
rendering  that  commerce  and  those  consequences  favor- 
able to  our  Government  and  propitious  to  our  future 
prosperity."  And  he  proceeds  to  show  the  natural  out- 
let to  the  ocean  by  the  Mississippi  and  St.  Lawrence 
rivers,  the  political  and  commercial  importance  to  the 
country  of  improvements  in  the  interior,  and  says: 

"If  we  improve  the  means  held  out  to  us  by  the  beneficent  hand 
of  Nature,  we  may  obtain  for  ourselves  all  the  advantages  now  en- 
joyed by  foreign  and  rival  powers.  Nay,  we  may  procure  for  our 
mercantile  fellow-citizens  much  greater  advantages.  *  *  *  The 
navigation  between  the  Hudson  and  Lake  Ontario,  by  the  Mohawk 
and  Wood  Creek  has  been  feebly  and  faintly  attempted  by  a  private 
company.  *  *  *  in  my  opinion,  nothing  short  of  the  conveyance 
of  a  vessel  of  one  hundred  tons  *  *  *  is  worthy  of  public  attention. 
*  *  *  But  you  will  ask  me  if  this  be  possible.  I  answer,  that  as  far 
as  I  can  judge  from  observation  and  information,  it  is  not  only  prac- 
ticable but  easy,  though  expensive.  To  show  this  I  need  only  say 
that  Lake  Ontario  is  considerably  higher  than  the  Hudson,  that  the 
shores  of  that  lake  and  the  river  flowing  out  of  it,  are  not  high,  that 
it  furnishes  an  immense  but  equable  stream  of  water,  and  that  no 
mountains  intervene.  An  inclined  plane  may,  I  believe,  be  found 
from  the  Ontario  to  the  Hudson,  but  to  Lake  Champlain  it  most 
certainly  exists." 

This  letter  is  unambiguous  and  shows  what  were  the 
views  of  the  writer.  It  was  written  several  weeks  after 
the  date  of  the  letter  to  John  Parish  from  which  our 
previous  quotations  were  made,  and  it  is  in  itself,  evi- 
dence that  the  writer  of  it  had  no  definite  conception  of 
the  interior  overland  route  to  Lake  Erie. 

Mr.  Morris  wielded  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer;  his 
mind  was  clear  and  comprehensive,  and  he  would  never 
have  written  that  letter  and  omitted  saying  in  it,  any 


''1^ 


19 


the 

ifter 

our 

evi- 

11  of 


word  about  a  direct  canal  through  the  interior  to  Lake 
Erie,  if  he  had  had  any  conception  in  his  mind  of  the 
feasibility  of  such  n  project. 

Here,  in  all  probability,  is  to  be  seen  the  reason  why 
the  family  of  Mr.  Morris  declined  to  give  Dr.  Hosack 
access  to  his  writings,  that  the  documents  relating  to  a 
canal  might  all  be  published  in  his  "  Memoirs." 

Mr.  Morris  was  desirous  of  having  a  water  communi- 
cation opened  that  would  give  access  to  the  eastern 
markets,  from  his  lands  and  those  of  his  friend  Madame 
de  Stael,  lying  in  St.  Lawrence  county,  without  encoun- 
tering the  tedious  journey  by  land,  through  the  new  and 
unopened  country  that  lay  between  them  and  the  tide- 
waters, as  his  letter  to  General  Lee  clearly  shows;  and 
his  subsequent  acts  and  writings  in  regard  to  im- 
provements in  the  interior,  are  directed  to  this  end. 

In  September,  1803,  he  made  a  journey,  by  way  of  the 
Mohawk  river,  Oneida  and  Ontario  lakes,  to  St.  Law- 
rence county,  to  see  his  lands  there.  Stopping  over 
night  in  Schenectady,  on  his  way  up,  he  had  an  inter- 
view in  his  hotel,  with  Simeon  DeWitt,  who  was  Sur- 
veyor-General of  the  State;  and,  as  Mr.  Morris  was 
in' crested  in  procuring  some  improvements  that  would 
be  beneficial  to  his  lands,  and  as  the  novel  project  of 
locking  up  and  around  the  falls  of  Niagara  had  recently 
been  authorized  by  the  Legislature,  and  as  neither  the 
Western  Inland  Navigation  Company  nor  the  Northern 
Inland  Navigation  Company,  (the  latter  designed  for 
opening  communication  between  the  northern  section 
of  Hudson  river  and  Lake  Champlain,)  were  affording 
facilities  for  business  to  the  extent  that  had  been  ex- 
pected of  them;  the  conversation  of  the  two  gentlemen 


20 


i!l!i 


naturally  turned  upon  improving  the  means  of  inter- 
course with  the  interior.  No  records  are  furnished  us 
of  what  they  said,  and  as  the  conversation  was  of  that 
free  and  informal  kind  by  which  they  pleasantly  whilcd 
away  the  evening,  it  is  not  probable  that  either  of  them 
made  any  notes  of  what  was  said,  or  expected  ever  to 
have  occasion  to  refer  to  it  again. 

In  1822,  however,  the  Erie  Canal  had  not  only  been 
projected,  but  after  hard  struggles,  it  was  nearly  com- 
pleted, and  was  very  popular  throughout  the  State  and 
elsewhere;  and  Mr.  DeWitt,  in  a  letter,  dated  February 
25th,  1822,  to  William  Darby,  who  had  requested  mate- 
rials to  be  introduced  into  the  Encyclopedia,  writes  as 
follows,  among  other  things: 

"A  considerable  discussion  *  *  *  has  appeared  in  print 
about  tlie  origin  of  tlie  Erie  Canal,  with  the  view  of  ascertaining  who 
is  most  entitled  to  the  honor  of  it.  *  *  *  The  merit  of  first  start- 
ing the  idea  of  a  direct  communication  by  water,  between  Lake  Erie 
and  Hudson's  river,  unquestionably  belongs  to  Mr.  Gouverneur 
Morris.  The  first  suggestion  I  had  of  it  was  from  him.  In  1803,  I 
accidentally  met  with  him  at  Schenectady.  We  put  up  for  the  night 
at  the  same  inn,  and  passed  the  evening  together.  Among  the 
numerous  topics  of  conversation  to*  which  his  prolific  mind  and 
excursive  imagination  gave  birth,  was  that  of  improving  the  means  of 
intercourse  with  the  interior  of  our  State.  He  then  mentioned  the 
project  of  tapping  Lake  Erie,  as  he  expressed  himself,  and  leading 
its  waters  in  an  artificial  river  directly  across  the  country  to  Hudson's 
river.  *  *  *  Considering  this  as  a  romantic  thing  and  character- 
istic of  the  man,  I  related  it  on  several  occasions.  Mr.  Geddes  now 
reminds  me  that  I  mentioned  it  to  him  in  1804,  when  he  was  here  as 
a  member  of  the  Legislature ;  and  adds  that  afterwards  when  in  com- 
pany with  Jesse  Hawley,  it  became  a  subject  of  conversation  which 
probably  led  to  inquiries  that  induced  Mr.  Hawley  to  write  the  essays 
which  afterwards  appeared  in  newspapers,  on  the  subject  of  carrying 
a  canal  from  Lake  Erie  to  Albany,  through  the  interior  of  the  country 
without  going  by  the  way  of  Lake  Ontario." 


n 


After  relating  the  action  of  the  Legislature  on  the 
motion  of  Judge  Forman  in  1808,  directing  surveys 
to  be  made,  Mr.  DeWitt  continues  and  says,  "  he  com- 
missioned James  Geddes  to  make  the  surveys,  and 
instructed  him  to  survey  two  different  routes  for  a  canal 
from  Oneida  Lake  to  Lake  Ontario,  one  byway  of  Oswego 
river,  and  one  by  Salmon  river,  which  runs  into  Lake 
Ontario  some  distance  east  of  Oswego  (in  the  town 
of  Mexico)."  Mr.  Geddes  was  instructed  next  to  level 
around  the  Niagara  Falls  and  ascertain  the  best  line  for 
a  canal  from  above  the  Falls  to  Lewiston,  and  Mr. 
DeWitt  says  in  ,the  letter,  "  I  had  received  such  infor- 
mation from  Mr.  Joseph  Ellicott  *  *  *  as  satisfied 
me  that  a  canal  was  practicable  from  the  Niagara  to  the 
Genesee  river;"  hence  Mr.  Geddes  was  instructed  that 
he  need  not  make  surveys  in  that  section. 

This  letter  of  Mr.  De Witt's  was  written  about  nineteen 
years  after  that  interview  with  Mr.  Morris  in  Schenec- 
tady, entirely  from  memory,  and  it  does  not  pretend  to 
quote  from  Mr.  Morris  a  single  word,  but  it  italicises  the 
words  tapping  Lake  Erie;  and  during  the  interval  of  time 
very  much  had  been  said  and  written,  by  many  persons, 
in  regard  to  canals. 

That  Mr.  DeWitt  labored  under  forgetfulness  or  mis- 
apprehension, or  else  drew  upon  his  imagination,  w '  en 
writing  that  letter  and  stating  that  Mr.  Morris  spoke 
"  of  tapping  Lake  Erie  and  leading  its  waters  directly 
across  the  country  to  the  Hudson,  and  that  he  is  unques- 
tionably entitled  to  the  merit  of  first  starting  the  idea  of 
such  a  canal,"  will  appear  by  our  following  Mr.  Morris  a 
little  further  on  that  journey.  At  Rome  he  had  a  con- 
versation with  Charles  C.  Broadhead,  an  engineer,  on 
the  subject  of  canals,  and,  as  Mr.  Broadhead  says,  "  Mr. 


f 


23 

Morris  inquired  very  particularly  as  to  the  situation  and 
soil  of  the  land  along  the  Oneida  lake  and  the  banks 
of  the  Oneida  and  Oswego  rivers,  and  the  country 
lying  between  the  Oneida  and  Ontario  lakes;"  and  Mr. 
Broadhead  continues,  "if  I  mistake  not,  he  spoke  of  the 
waters  of  the  Salmon  river  and  Bruce's  Creek,  the  former 
empties  into  Lake  Ontario,  and  the  latter  into  Oneida 
Lake.  *  *  *  It  is  my  impression  that  Lake  Erie 
was  not  mentioned  in  this  conversation.  After  answer- 
ing Mr.  Morris's  inquiries  as  far  as  I  was  able,  he 
declared  he  would  give  five  hundred  dollars  to  be  a 
member  of  the  Legislature  that  year,  that  he  might  get 
a  law  passed  for  a  canal  from  the  Hudson  river,  and 
I  think  I  cannot  be  mistaken  when  I  say  to  Lake 
Ontario." 

Mr.  Morris  here  i  lows  the  same  interest  for  improve- 
ments to  communicate  with  his  lands  in  St.  Lawrence 
county,  that  was  indicated  in  his  letter  to  General  Lee, 
two  years  previously;  and  in  that  interview  with  Mr. 
Broadhead,  is  not  manifested  any  conception  of  an  idea 
of  a  canal  through  the  interior  to  Lake  Erie,  as  Mr. 
DeWitt,  nineteen  years  afterward,  imagined  he  had  done 
at  Schenectady. 

A  little  further  on  his  journey,  at  Three  River  Point, 
the  same  views  are  unmistakably  indicated  by  Mr 
Morris's  writing  in  his  diary,  September  12th,  1803,  (^^ 
Mr.  Morris  kept  a  diary  many  years.)  Of  a  canal  he 
writes,  "  it  should  be  taken  from  the  head  of  Onondaga 
river  and  carried  on  the  level  as  far  east  as  it  will  go, 
and  if  practicable,  into  the  Mohawk  river.  *  *  * 
This  canal,  I  think,  should  be  five  feet  deep  and  forty- 
five  feet  wide.  A  branch  might  easily  he  carried  to 
Lake  Ontario."      Not  a  word  was  written  about  Lake 


Itil!!l 


23 


go, 


Erie,  nor  about  a  canal  of  any  kind  to  any  place  west 
of  Onondaga  river;  and  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that, 
considering  the  fluency  with  which  Mr.  Morris  wrote,  he 
would  have  omitted  any  allusion  to  an  overland  canal  to 
Lake  Eric,  if  he  had  had  any  conception  of  one  in  his 
mind. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  ambiguity  in  Mr.  Morris's  letter 
to  John  Parish,  and  the  vague  and  romantic  recollections 
of  Mr.  DeWitt  in  his  letter  to  William  Darby,  can  not  be 
reconciled  with  Mr.  Morris's  letters,  his  diary,  and  his 
actions,  and  with  his  conversation  with  Mr.  Brodhead — 
except  on  the  theory  that  he  meant,  as  he  wrote,  a  water 
communication  from  Lake  Ontario  to  the  Hudson  river; 
and  to  this  view  all  his  writings  and  actions  point  with 
entire  harmony.  If  he  used  the  expression,  tapping 
Lake  Erie,  in  his  conversation  with  Mr.  DeWitt,  he  of 
course  referred  to  the  project  for  a  canal  around  Niagara 
Falls. 

James  Geddes,  in  a  letter  to  William  Darby,  of  Feb- 
ruary 22,  1822,  says,  "in  the  winter  of  1804,  I  learned, 
for  the  first  time,  from  the  Surveyor- General,  that 
Gouverneur  Morris  in  a  conversation  between  them  the 
preceding  autumn,  mentioned  the  scheme  of  a  canal  from 
Lake  Erie  across  the  country  to  the  Hudson  river,"  and 
that  it  made  a  great  "  impression  "  on  his  mind. 

This  letter  is  written  from  memory,  eighteen  years 
after  the  incident  is  stated  to  have  occurred,  and  the 
misapprehension  under  which  it  was  written  is  seen  in 
the  fact,  as  herein  shown,  that  Mr.  Morris  could  not  have 
mentioned  the  scheme  of  a  canal  from  Lake  Erie  across 
the  country,  but  that  in  1803  he  was  devising  a  plan  for 
a  canal  from  Onondaga  river  to  the  Mohawk,  and  also 


( 


24 


down  to  Lake  Ontario;  a  scheme  which,  in  the  isolated 
condition  of  Onondasfa  countv  at  that  time  was  well 
calculated  to  excite  the  attention  of  her  people. 

Judge  Geddes  was,  in  1804,  a  member  of  the  Legisla- 
ture. Mr.  DeVVitt  was  Surveyor-General  of  the  State, 
and  Mr.  Morris  had  held  several  high  official  stations. 
All  of  them  were  public  men,  and  public  spirited  men, 
and  it  is  not  probable  that  they  all  would  have  omitted 
or  neglected  the  opportunity  to  bring  the  scheme  before 
the  public,  if  they  had  been  "  impressed"  with  the  impor- 
tance of  such  a  work  as  a  canal  through  the  interior 
from  Lake  Erie,  or  had  entertained  any  conception  of 
the  feasibility  of  such  a  project. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  basis  on  which  the  claim  is 
founded  that  Mr.  Morris  was  the  projector  of  the  Erie 
Canal,  proves  to  be  unsound ;  and  of  course  the  struc- 
ture built  upon  it  mtlst  fail.  If  Mr.  Morris  were  now 
living,  it  is  probable  that  his  honorable  impulses  would 
constrain  him,  as  did  Elkanah  Watson,  to  announce  that 
he  designed  canaling  between  the  Hudson  river  and 
Lake  Ontario,  and  around  Niagara  Falls,  and  did  not 
contemplate  a  direct  canal  through  the  country  to  Lake 
Erie. 

Judge  Geddes  and  Jesse  Hawley,  in  their  letters  to  Dr. 
Hosack,  in  1828,  (each  one  writing  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  other,)  agree  in  regard  to  the  time  of  their  inter- 
view in  Geneva,  that  it  was  "in  the  winter  of  1806,"  "the 
winter  before  he  wrote  his  essays ;"  and  it  is  written  that 
the  testimony  of  two  men  is  true.  But  Judge  Geddes 
claims  to  have  "perfect  recollection  of  informing  Mr. 
Hawley  of  the  project,"  and  has  "no  doubt  but  that  I 
informed  him  the  idea  came  from  Mr.  Morris."  And 
Mr.  Hawley  writes:  "  I  do  not  recollect  that  any  mention 


25 


was  made  of  the  canal  when  we  met  in  Geneva.  If 
there  was,  I  presume  that  I  first  spoke  of  it.  *  *  * 
I  afterwirds  saw  Mr.  Geddes  at  his  house  in  Onondaga, 
in  1811,  when  we  conversed  on  the  subject,  I  beheve  for 
the  first  time."  And  in  1835,  Mr.  Hawley  writes:  "With 
me,  it  was  a  native  thought — without  having  been  sug- 
gested or  communicated  to  me  by  any  person."  When 
Judge  Geddes  wrote  that  letter  to  Dr.  Hosack,  he  knew 
he  was  writing  for  history,  and  would  be  more  likely  to 
be  correct  in  his  dates  than  when  writing  a  newspaper 
paragraph  in  1835,  in  which  he  says  his  visit  to  Geneva 
was  in  1805,  instead  of  1806.  But  as  we  have  seen,  his 
impression  that  he  communicated  the  idea  of  the  Erie 
Canal,  must  be  confounded  with  the  interest  which  he 
and  others  naturally  took  in  the  project  of  a  local  canal, 
which  Mr.  Morris  indicated  in  his  diary. 

The  Paper  read  by  George  Geddes,  Esq.,  maintains 
that  Judge  Geddes  was  so  deeply  impressed  with  the 
idea  of  a  direct  overland  route  for  a  canal — as  coming 
from  Mr.  Morris — that  he  did  not  rest,  but  formed  public 
opinion  until  1807,  when  Judge  Forman  was  elected  to 
the  Legislature  as  a  "Canal  man"  "on  the  question  of  a 
canal  across  the  country,  not  by  Lake  Ontario;"  and  says 
Judge  Forman  was  an  eminent  lawyer  and  an  accom- 
plished scholar,  and  his  grace  of  person  and  manner 
gave  him  much  influence  with  his  associates.  He  was 
President  of  the  village  of  Syracuse  in  1825. 

This  accomplished  gentleman,  on  whom  the  argument 
of  Mr.  Geddes  centres,  wrote  to  Dr.  Hosack  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Erie  Canal,  October  13,  1828,  from  which 
letter  I  quote  as  follows: 


26 


I  il  I 


"On  taking  my  seat  as  member  of  Assembly  for  the  county  of 
Onondaga,  at  the  session  of  1807-8,  my  bookseller  banded  me  seve- 
ral copies  of  'Rees's  Cyclopedia,'  to  which  I  was  a  subscriber.  I 
had  early  been  acquainted  with  the  projected  works  of  the  Inland 
Lock  Navigation  Company,  from  the  Hudson  river  to  Lake  Ontario, 
and  had  seen  in  the  statute  book  an  Act  to  incorporate  a  company  to 
lock  up  the  Niagara  Falls  from  Lake  Ontario  to  Lake  Erie.  In  read- 
ing at  my  leisure  in  the  article  '  Canal,'  an  account  of  the  numerous 
canals  and  improved  river  navigation  in  England,  I  soon  discovered 
Ithe  relative  importance  of  the  former  over  the  latter.  Applying  this 
(to  our  interior,  I.  perceived  how  much  more  the  country  would  be 
benefited  by  a  canal  than  by  the  works  contemplated ;  and  *  *  * 
it  occurred  to  me  that  if  a  canal  v.'as  ever  made  to  open  a  communi- 
cation from  the  Hudson  to  the  western  lakes,  it  would  be  worth  more 
than  all  the  extra  cost  to  go  directly  through  the  country  to  Lake 
Erie.  *  *  *  Sitting  with  Judge  Wright  and  General  McNiel,  my 
room-mates,  I  broached  the  subject  to  them.  At  first,  Judge  Wright 
/objected  that  it  would  be  folly  to  make  a  canal  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  abreast  of  a  good  sloop  navigation  in  Lake  Ontario.  *  *  * 
The  subject  was  freely  discussed.  Judge  Wright  gave  in  to  the  plan, 
and  it  was  agreed  by  all  that  the  project  was  of  immense  importance, 
and  that  measures  ought  to  be  taken  to  ascertain  its  practicability.  I 
drew  up  the  resolution,  which  Judge  Wright  agreed  to  second." 

From  that  resolution  sprung  the  legislative  action 
under  which  the  first  surveys  were  made,  by  Judge 
Geddes,  in  1808. 

Judge  Forman  does  not  write  as  if  he  had  been 
"  elected  to  the  Assembly  as  a  canal  man,  on  the  ques- 
tion of  a  canal  across  the  country,  no^  by  Lake  Ontario;" 
but,  entirely  inconsistent  with  such  an  idea.  In  his 
argument  in  support  of  the  motion  which  he  introduced, 
he  pointed  out  nearly  the  same  route  for  a  canal  as  had 
been  delineated  in  the  first  number  of  the  "Hercules" 
papers  by  Mr.  Hawley,  published  in  Pittsburg,  and  in 
the  second  number,  published  in  Canandaigua.  Judge 
Forman  continues : 


t  ■ 


27 


1 


"  I  conversed  frequently  during  the  season,  with  Judge  Geddes, 
and  explained  to  liim  my  views  on  the  subject  of  the  interior  route." 

*  *  *  "  I  should  have  been  satisfied,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
had  not  the  Surveyor-General,  in  a  letter  to  William  Darby,  given  a 
new  turn  to  the  investigation,  *  *  giving  an  impression  that  my 
resolution  had  grown  out  of  that  suggestion  of  Gouverneur  Morris. 

*  *  *  Mr.  Morris  had  tra\eled  and  seen  canals  in  other  countries, 
and  no  doubt  had  bright  visions  of  the  future  improvemerts  of  this 
country  •  *  *  *  but  it  was  nowise  probable  that  he  vicA/ed  them 
as  works  to  be  accomplished  in  his  day,  or,  as  a  patriot,  ne  would 
have  proposed  the  subject  to  the  Legislature.     *    *     His  suggestions 

*  *     had  no  more  effect  in  producing  the  canal,  than  the  ancient! 
poet's  song  of  the  '  Fortunate  Islands  beyond  the  Atlantic  Ocean ' 
had  in  producing  the  discovery  of  America." 

The  resolution  introduced  into  the  Assembly  by  Judge 
Forman  in  1808,  resulted  in  directing  the  Surveyor- 
General  to  cause  a  "survey  to  be  made  of  the  rivers, 
streams  and  waters,  in  the  usual  route  of  communication 
between  the  Hudson  river  and  Lake  Erie,  and  such 
other  contemplated  route  as  he  may  deem  proper,"  thus 
leaving  the  whole  matter  very  much  in  his  discretion  • 
and  that  Mr.  DeWitt  was  not  at  this  time  very  much 
impressed  with  such  views  as  he  writes,  in  1822,  had 
been  communicated  to  him  by  Morris  in  1803,  is  seen 
by  his  instructions  in  regari  to  making  that  survey, 
given  to  James  Geddes,  under  date  of  June  nth,  1808, 
already  stated;  which  read  as  if  he  exercised  the  dis- 
cretion given  him  to  promote  the  object  which  Mr. 
Morris  had  in  view  in  his  journey  by  way  of  Oswego,  in 
1803,  to  his  lands  in  St.  Lawrence  county;  for  the  first 
thing  he  instructed  Mr,  Geddes  to  do  was  to  look  for 
the  best  place  for  a  canal  from  Oneida  Lake  to  Lake 
Ontario,  in  the  town  of  Mexico.  And  Judge  Geddes  is 
not  so  much  impressed  in  behalf  of  an  interior  route  to 
Lake  Erie  as  to  offer  any  remonstrance  against  expend- 


!i  liii  I 


28 

ing  the  time  and  the  money  appropriated  for  those 
surveys,  ahnost  exclusively  upon  the  Ontario  route. 

And  that  Mr.  DeWitt  labored  under  some  forgetful- 
ness  or  misapprehension  in  regard  to  this  matter,  is  con- 
clusively shown  by  an  incongruity  he  perpetrates  in  his 
instructions  to  Judge  Geddes  in  1808,  and  in  his  letter 
to  Mr.  Darby  in  1822,  stating  in  the  first  that  "As 
Joseph  Ellicott  has  given  me  a  description  of  the  country 
from  Tonnewanta  Creek  to  the  Genesee  river  *  *  * 
it  is  important  to  have  exploration  continued  to  Seneca 
river.  No  leveling  or  survey  of  it  will  be  necessary  for 
the  present,  *  *  *  a  view  of  the  ground  only,  with 
such  information  as  may  be  obtained  from  others,  is  all 
that  can  now  be  required  of  you."  And. in  the  letter  to 
Mr.  Darby  he  says,  "  I  had  received  such  information 
from  Joseph  Ellicott,  etc." 

That  information  and  description  of  the  country  was 
sent  to  Mr.  DeWitt  several  weeks  after  his  instructions 
were  issued  to  Mr.  Geddes,  which  was  the  nth  of  June, 
1808,  and  Mr.  Ellicott's  communication  of  that  valu- 
able information  is  dated  Batavia,  July  30th,  1808,  and 
begins  by  acknowledging  ihe  receipt  of  Mr.  DeWitt's 
letter  of  June  13th,  1808,  in  which  Mr.  DeWitt  asks  for 
the  information,  which  Mr.  Ellicott  then  proceeds  to 
give. 

The  Legislature  of  1 810  appointed  Gouverneur  Morris, 
DeWitt  Clinton,  and  five  others,  a  board  of  commissioners 
"for  exploring  the  whole  route  for  inland  navigation  from 
Hudson's  river  to  Lake  Ontario  and  Lake  Erie."  That 
board  of  commissioners  entered  upon  their  duties  on 
the  ist  of  July  following,  having  with  them  the  writings 
of  Jesse  Hawley  on  the  subject  of  a  canal,  and  other 
valuable  documents,  as  we  have  seen ;  and  Mr.  Morris, 


29 


while  on  that  tour  of  exploration,  on  the  12th  of  July, 
1 8 10,  put  himself  on  record  for  the  first  time  in  favor 
of  a  direct  overland  canal  to  Lake  Erie. 

What  followed,  in  the  complex  and  protracted  prelim- 
inaries, in  the  beginning,  the  progress  and  completion  of 
that  gigantic  work,  has  been  delineated  before  this  Society 
on  previous  occasions. 

We  have  seen  that  the  canal  was  "projected;"  and 
while  we  cannot  claim  for  any  person  that  he  was  the 
first  or  only  one  who  "conceived  "  the  idea,  yet,  that  the 
views  promulgated  in  the  "  Hercules  "  papers  by  Jesse 
Hawley  in  1 807,  were  original,  native  thoughts  with  him, 
and  the  first  publication  of  such  a  project,  is  too  well 
established  to  need  further  elucidation. 

After  many  delays  and  much  anxiety  in  behalf  of  the 
Canal,  the  State  finally  entered  upon  the  work  of  its 
construction  on  the  4th  of  July,  181 7,  and  its  completion 
on  the  26th  of  October,  1825,  was  announced  by  such  a 
feu  dejoie  as  had  not  been  previously  known  in  any  age; 
and  we  are  witnesses  to-day,  that  the  predictions  of  its 
effects  upon  our  country  and  people,  made  by  its  earliest 
advocates,  have  been  more  than  realized. 

To  recount  its  influence  in  attracting  the  husbandman  ' 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  cultivate  the  rich  unbroken 
soil  of  the  vast  country  west  of  us,  in  inviting  the  me- 
chanic and  the  enterprizing  trader,  the  men  of  science 
and  the  political  economist,  to  occupy  that  broad  domain, 
and  organize  States,  build  up  towns  and  cities,  and  ex- 
tend the  blessings  of  civilization,  would  be  only  repeat- 
ing what  has  many  times  been  said. 

To  narrate  the  growth  and  extent  of  the  material  and 
social  prosperity  that  is  traceable  directly  to  the  Erie 
Canal  would  tax  the  capacity  of  man  to  appreciate  them. 


%\ 


nJP  ^.A    //^-' 


30 


ii 


Not  a  State  in  what  we  call  the  West,  nor  one  of  the 
many  opulent  cities  in  that  region,  but  owes  its  organic 
existence  or  its  prosperity  to  the  influence  of  that  great 
work. 

In  1825  the  cities  of  St.  Louis  and  Cincinnati  would 
have  smiled  derisively  upon  any  proposition  that  within 
the  ensuing  generation  they  would  be  eclipsed  by  a  city 
on  the  southwestern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  which 
then  had  no  existence.  The  cities  of  Chicago,  Mil- 
waukee, Toledo  and  others  may  be  said  to  have  been 
born  of  the  Canal. 

Our  own  city,  with  its  broad  and  extensive  avenues, 
its  humane  and  benevolent  institutions,  its  gorgeous 
buildings,  its  wealth  and  population,  and,  above  all,  its 
magnificent  ships  and  extensive  commerce,  is  a  proud 
witness  of  the  propriety  of  the  undertaking,  and  of  the 
success  which  has  followed  it.  The  first  wheat  brought 
to  this  port — two  thousand  five  hundred  bushels  in  1828 
— found  no  market  here;  the  trade  which  the  Canal  in- 
spired had  not  then  been  put  into  action.  The  arrivals 
of  grain  and  flour  in  a  single  year  recently  have  been 
equal  to  nearly  seventy  three  million  bushels. 

The  tolls  paid  to  the  State  on  property  shipped  on 
the  Canal  from  this  port  in  any  one  year  as  late  as  1840, 
scarcely  exceeded  three  hundred  thousand  dollars.  They 
have  since  exceeded  three  million  dollars  in  a  single  year. 

The  benefits  resulting  from  the  Canal  have  been  felt 
and  enjoyed  in  every  county  and  town  throughout  the 
State;  the  increase  in  the  value  of  all  real  property 
being  in  the  aggregate  many  times  greater  than  the  cost 
of  its  construction. 

The  city  of  New  York,  in  whose  growth  and  pros- 
perity we  take  a  just  pride,  has  derived  from  this  Canal 


31 


greater  benefits,  perhaps,  than  any  other  city.  Her  pop- 
ulation in  1820,  being  about  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand,  and  at  the  present  time  over  one  million,  the 
value  of  her  real  and  personal  property,  as  recentl}!'  as 
1845,  reported  at  about  two  hundred  and  forty  million 
dollars,  and  at  the  present  time  over  one  billion  dollars — 
the  magnitude  of  her  trade  and  commerce,  her  imports 
and  exports  in  the  year  1867,  aggregate  over  five  hun- 
dred and  sixteen  million  dollars;  her  supremacy  over 
every  other  seaboard  city — all  attest  that  to  her  the 
Canal  has  been,  and  7iow  is,  "a  river  of  gold  flowing  into 
her  lap." 

It  is  not  the  locality  merely  of  the  city  of  New  York 
that  has  secured  to  her  such  prosperity  and  enabled  her 
to  absorb  the  growing  business  of  other  cities,  and  make 
them  pay  tribute  to  her.  Other  seaboard  cities  north 
and  south  of  her  have  spacious  harbors,  and  are  as 
accessible  to  all  the  interior  country  by  railroads  as  New 
York,  but  they  have  no  Erie  Canal  tributary  to  them. 
As  the  Canal  has  been  the  source  of  her  prosperity  in 
years  past,  so  it  is  the  main  reliance  for  her  continued 
enjoyment  of  this  high  position  in  the  years  to  come. 

No  city  can  long  maintain  the  controling  position  she 
occupies  in  regard  to  the  foreign  commerce  of  the  coun- 
try without  the  supplies  steadily  and  certainly  furnished 
by  this  interior  and  never-failing  source. 

The  financial  success  of  the  Canal  is  without  a  parallel 
in  the  history  of  similar  enterprises.  Besides  the  great 
increase  of  material  wealth  it  has  brought  to  all  parts 
of  the  State,  its  own  account  of  receipts  and  expendi- 
tures, including  its  construction,  repairs,  enlargement 
and  improvements,  with  interest  to  September  30th, 
1866,  as  reported  by  the  Auditor  of  the  Canal  Depart- 


r 

I 


i  i» 


32 

ment,  shows  a  cash  balance  to  its  credit  of  about  forty- 
one  and  one-half  millions  of  dollars. 

The  State  canal  debt,  which  has  sometimes  been 
urged  as  a  formidable  objection  to  any  further  outlay 
upon  canals,  is  the  offspring  of  a  laudable  desire  to 
promote  the  local  as  well  as  the  general  interests  of  the 
State,  that  has  prevailed  in  the  administration  of  State 
affairs,  and  which  led  to  the  construction  of  various  local 
canals,  none  of  which  have  been  financially  successful, 
though  of  great  and  lasting  benefits  to  the  people  of  their 
immediate  locality ;  and  the  canal  debt  now  resting  upon 
the  State  is  the  result  of  the  construction  of  those  canals, 
the  benefits  of  which  pertain  to  the  particular  localities ; 
and  those  localities  might  reasonably  be  expected  to  be 
foremost  in  a  movement  to  pay  off  that  debt  by  a  general 
and  equal  tax  upon  all  the  property  of  the  State,  rather 
than  allow  the  debt  to  be  any  impediment  in  the  way  of 
\  further  improving  and  perfecting  the  capacity  of  the 
i  Erie  Canal  to  the  extent  of  enabling  it  to  do  all  the 
business  that  may  be  offered  to  it,  and  at  such  moderate 
charges  that  no  other  route  shall  be  able  to  compete 
with  it. 

Since  the  original  construction  of  the  Canal  its  prism 
has  been  enlarged  and  its  capacity  greatly  improved. 
The  tonnage  of  boats  navigating  it  was  originally  from 
thirty-five  to  forty  tons;  now,  boats  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  tons  make  their  voyage  through  its  waters ;  but  yet 
its  size  is  not  that  of  one  hundred  feet  wide  and  ten  feet 
deep,  as  was  recommended  in  the  essays  of  "  Hercules." 
Such  a  canal,  with  locks  of  corresponding  dimensions, 
if  constructed  without  delay,  would  put  to  rest  all  ques- 
tion of  its  utility  or  supremacy. 


3;^ 


The  great  and  rapid  increase  of  the  business  of  the 
country,  springing  directly  from  the  construction  of  the 
Canal,  brought  into  existence  numerous  railroad  enter- 
prises, and  there  are  now  as  many  as  five  or  six  through 
lines  of  railroads  engaged  to  the  extent  Oi  their  capacity 
in  this  inland  commerce;  and  yet  so  great  has  been  the 
increase  of  the  productions  of  the  country  that,  with  all 
the  increase  of  facilities  for  transportation,  they  are  not 
sufficient  to  meet  the  demands  upon  them;  and  in  the 
clamor  for  additional  facilities  and  greater  speed,  we 
occasionally  hear  of  more  railroads  being  projected,  and 
See  the  Canal  partially  overlooked  or  entirely  ignored. 

As  a  people,  we  are  "faster"  than  were  those  of  fifty 
years  ago.  We  think  and  move  faster  than  they;  we 
transact  more  business,  and  amass  greater  wealth,  and 
are  impatient  of  restraint  or  delays;  but  let  us  not  over- 
look the  fact  that  it  would  be  physically  impossible  to 
transact  the  business  of  this  vast  interior  commerce  by 
railroads.  The  electric  telegraph  will  flash  our  commer- 
cial messages  instantaneo&sly  from  San  Francisco  to 
New  York,  but  it  cannot  transport  one  bushel  of  wheat. 
The  fleetest  horses  of  Arabia  could  not  be  made  the 
beasts  of  burden  to  perform  a  heavy  carrying  trade. 
Neither  can  the  railroads,  though  adapted  to  the  speedy 
transportation  of  persons  and  much  of  the  merchandise 
and  products  of  the  country,  perform  the  immense  and 
heavy  freighting  business  between  the  West  and  the 
East.  The  main  reliance  is  upon  our  Canal ;  and  we 
read  with  some  surprise  an  editorial  in  ^o  well  informed 
a  newspaper  as  the  New  York  Times,  in  July  last,  oppos- 
ing further  appropriations  to  the  canals,  and  saying, 
"Water  transportation  of  every  kind  is  rapidly  losing  its 
influence  in  our  trade  with  the  interior.  *  *  *  Xhe 
6 


84 

day  of  the  canals  has  gone  by — they  havL*  accomplished 
their  work,  and  can  now  be  relieved  by  the  superior 
system  of  transportation,"  the  railroads. 

We  might  suppose  the  editor  had  been  romancing, 
and  expect  he  would  next  wiite,  (after  a  pleasant  moon- 
light drive  through  Central  Park,)  that  the  "sun"  is  an 
old  played-out  institution,  its  heats  have  become  too 
oppressive,  and  we  can  well  dispense  with  it.  The  moon 
is  more  pleasant,  and  the  comforts  it  supplies  are  an  im- 
provement upon  the  old  system. 

The  sun  is  scarcely  more  necessary  to  supply  those 
essential  elements  of  our  existence  and  welfare,  reflected 
by  the  moon,  than  is  the  Canal  to  sustain  the  commercial 
supremacy  of  New  York,  as  well  as  the  prosperity  of  the 
railroads  engaged  with  it  in  carrying  on  this  commerce. 

If  it  were  possible  for  the  city  of  Boston  to  become 
the  outlet  of  this  Canal,  and  secure  its  constantly  flowing 
stream  of  supplies  into  her  own  lap,  instead  of  enriching 
New  York,  she  would  soon  reinstate  the  Cunard  steam- 
ships at  her  wharves,  and  would  not  feel  a  necessity  for 
inviting  her  neighboring  merchants  to  meet  her  in  con- 
vention and  devise  the  ways  and  means  for  checking  the 
decline  of  her  commercial  influence  and  relative  position. 

This  interior  commerce,  which  enriches  all  who  man- 
age it,  is  too  great  a  prize  to  escape  the  efforts  of  oppos- 
ing and  competing  interests  to  draw  it  to  other  channels, 
and  we  see  capital  and  enterprise  employed  with  such 
well  directed  energy  as  merits  success,  to  divide  this 
trafiic  with  ^ew  York,  and  appropriate  a  part  of  the 
golden  stream  to  other  and  foreign  cities.  The  pro- 
jected improvements  for  business  on  the  Mississippi 
river,  by  means  of  barges  and  of  elevators  at  New 
Orleans,  it  is  claimed,  will  draw  to  that  channel  a  large 


85 


bed 
rior 

:ing, 
oon- 
,s  an 
too 
noon 
n  im- 

those 
ected 
ercial 
of  the 
Tierce, 
scome 
[owing 
idling 
steam- 
iity  for 
in  con- 
ing the 
osition. 
lO  man- 
oppos- 
annels, 
h  such 
de  this 
of  the 
he  pro- 
sissippi 
at   New 
a  large 


volume  of  the  property  that  has  heretofore  sought  an 
eastern  market  by  way  of  this  Canal,  and  thus  enrich 
the  shipping;  interests  on  that  river  and  the  city  of  New 
Orleans,  at  our  expense. 

Our  neighbors  of  the  Dominion  of  Ontario  were 
early  alive  to  the  importance  of  securing  a  portion  of 
this  growing  commerce,  and  they  constructed  the  Wel- 
land  Canal,  which  has  for  many  years  diverted  no  incon- 
siderable share  of  this  flowing  wealth  to  a  foreign  chan- 
nel; and  their  efforts  to  this  end  have  not  abated.  They 
have  constructed  extensive  lines  of  railroads,  improved  • 
the  navigation  of  their  rivers,  and  projected  other  works 
of  yet  greater  importance,  as  connected  with  this  com- 
merce. If  they  shall  construct  the  Georgian  Bay  and 
Toronto  Canal,  and  make  the  Ottawa  River  Improve- 
ment to  Montreal,  (especially  the  latter,)  before  our  Canal 
is  perfected  by  enlarging  its  locks  and  securing  a  greater 
depth  of  water,  they  will  succeed  in  diverting  a  larger 
amount  of  our  legitimate  traffic  than  we  can  afford  to 
lose.  A  small  portion  only  of  shipments  on  Lake  On- 
tario find  their  way  to  New  York,  and  shipments  by  the 
Ottawa  river  route  must  of  necessity  pay  their  tribute  to 
the  cities  of  Montreal  and  Quebec. 

One  of  the  leading  objects  in  view  with  all  those  men 
who  early  advocated  the  improvement  of  water  commu- 
nication between  the  interior  and  tide  waters,  was  to 
secure  this  commerce  to  our  own  people,  and  build  up 
our  own  cities  with  the  products  of  our  enterprise  and 
capital,  rather  than  allow  it  to  be  appropriated  by  our 
foreign  neighbors.  These  views  were  deeply  impressed 
upon  the  mind  of  that  good  and  loyal  Briton,  Cadwallader 
Colden,  as  early  as  the  year  1 724,  and  they  were  repeated 


86 

by  Sir  Henry  Moore,  by  General  Washington,  George 
Clinton,  and  every  other  writer  in  favor  of  internal  im- 
provements, clown  to  the  time  of  our  Canal. 

We  are  now  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  high  position 
which  the  construction  of  the  Canal  was  expected  to 
confer  upon  us;  and  the  benefits  it  bestows  on  other 
States,  and  upon  the  nation  at  large,  justly  entitle  New 
York  to  the  appellation  of  the  "  Empire  State."  It  has 
been  said,  by  good  authority,  that  the  struggle  we  recently 
encountered  with  armed  rebellion  could  not  have  been 
successfully  carried  on  but  for  the  sinews  of  war,  the 
wealth,  derived  from  the  productions  of  the  country, 
through  the  facilities  which  this  Canal  afforded. 

If  we  have  not  secured,  to  the  full  extent,  the  advan- 
tages which  the  Canal  might  yield  to  us,  it  behooves  us 
to  look  for  the  cause  and  apply  the  remedy.  If  any 
portion  of  this  inheritance  is  in  danger  of  being  wrested 
from  our  hands  by  competing  inl  -ests,  as  wise  men 
possessed  of  the  ability  to  preserve  it,  we  will  not  fail  to 
counteract  such  efforts  by  the  legitimate  means  at  our 
command.  Such  danger  is  not  to  be  encountered  by 
the  competition  of  the  railroads.  The  interests  of  these 
roads  and  of  the  Canal  are  reciprocal.  The  roads  would 
not  have  come  into  existence  but  for  the  stimulus  sfiven 
by  the  Canal ;  and  now,  both  of  the  systems  are  to  a  large 
extent  deiDcndent  each  upon  the  other. 

It  is  the  competition  which  may  arise  from  other 
water  routes  of  transit,  that  may  prejudice  or  put  in 
jeopardy  the  interests  centred  in  our  Canal;  and  towards 
this  should  our  counteractinoj  efforts  be  directed. 

Such  improvements  of  the  Canal  as  will  secure  to  it  a 
steady  supply  of  water  to  the  greatest  depth  admissible, 
and  an    enlargement  of  its  locks  to  a  corresponding 


37 


large 


extent,  with  a  schedule  of  tolls  as  low  as  would  suffice 
to  pay  the  interest  on  the  cost  of  the  improvements,  and 
an  economical  administration  of  its  aftairs,  would  enable 
the  Canal  to  neutralize  all  competition  and  secure  its 
supremacy  over  the  commerce  of  the  northern  States. 
Whatever  be  the  necessary  expense,  the  importance 
of  such  improvement  demands  immediate  attention. 
A  large  debt  resting  upon  the  State,  incurred  in  the 
progress  of  its  internal  improvement  policy,  is  put  forth 
as  a  reason  for  withholding  further  appropriations  for 
canals.  P>ut  that  argument  cannot  apply  to  this  Canal, 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  rich  in  funds  to  the  extent  of 
■  many  millions  of  dollars. 

It  has  also  been  gravely  urged  in  the  Constitutional 
Convention,  by  a  member  from  the  city  of  New  York,  that 
the  State  should  sell  the  Canal!  Not  because  it  has  not 
accomplished  all  that  was  predicted  for  it,  not  for  any 
financial  delinquency,  but  because,  as  stated,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  secure  an  honest  administration  of  its  affairs!, 
The  philosopher  who  urged  this  proposition,  doubtless 
predicated  his  argument  on  the  doctrine  of  total  deprav- 
ity, and  he  should  have  followed  his  logic  to  its  legiti- 
mate conclusion,  and  proposed  that  the  Convention  be 
dissolved,  because  constitutions  and  laws  are  worthless, 
it  being  impossible  to  secure  an  honest  administration 
of  them ! 

We  cannot  afford  to  allow  the  supremacy  of  the  Canal 
to  be  put  in  jeopardy.  A  due  regard  to  the  future 
welfare  of  our  own  city  will  not  permit  it, — the  agricul- 
tural interests  of  our  State,  toits  remotest  corners,  can- 
not afford  the  risk ; — the  city  of  New  York,  least  of  all, 
can  afford  thus  to  jeopardize  its  commanding  position. 
Our  railroads  themselves  cannot  afford  to  lose  the  invig- 


;,, 


38 


orating  influence  their  business  receives  from  this  con- 
troh'ng  soufce. 

Better  that  the  present  debt  and  the  expense  of  further 
improvements  be  paid  by  a  tax  on  all  the  property  of  the 
State,  and  the  tolls  placed  at  the  lowest  rate  consistent 
with  the  necessary  current  expenditures,  than  suffer  a 
diminution  of  the  jjolden  stream. 

We  are  not  such  degenerate  sons  of  our  fathers  that 
we  are  unable  to  appreciate  and  preserve  this  rich  heri- 
tage,— the  result  of  their  wisdom  and  enterprise, — and 
we  must  carry  out  to  perfection  that  which  they  so 
auspiciously  begun,  and  in  which  they  achieved  such 
signal  success,  and  thus  secure  to  our  successors  the 
benefits  that  will  follow,  and  to  our  State  the  high  dis- 
tinction she  has  earned,  through  all  coming  time. 


